Perhaps it is truer to say that life events and major changes are not in themselves the things which cause anxiety and panic attacks: how you react to them is much nearer the mark.

Without good problem solving skills, tackling life’s ups and downs is that much harder, and this in turn will create more stress and worry, and become a serious cause of anxiety: a potent mixture for encouraging panic attacks. Constantly worrying about a problem without being able to reach a solution is a good way to keep anxiety levels high.

Worrying is good only if it leads to resolution by taking positive action, asking for help, or by willingly accepting the situation as it is. If you don’t ever reach that point, you run the risk of raising and maintaining levels of anxiety which could eventually overload the system, especially on cop of high levels of background anxiety.

Looking back, with better problem-solving skills I might have been able to divert the onset of my panic attacks by taking more positive action rather than simply coping with much that was unsatisfactory. And for me, “coping” largely meant “ignoring” or “avoiding”. Consequently I lost my sense of perspective and could have benefited from taking some advice from a counselor, who would have been much more objective.

I could also have developed some possible solutions to elements in my working life with which I wasn’t happy.